Leading UK Fashion authority to judge at iD Fashion Week

Singapore-based UK fashion lecturer and former lingerie designer Lucy Jones will join the iD International Emerging Designer Awards judging panel at this year’s 10th anniversary of the event held at the Dunedin Town Hall on Thursday, April 3..

Lucy Jones, who has been involved in fashion education for more than 25 years, also had her own internationally recognised lingerie brand during the 1980s. She has also worked in product development in the Australian fashion industry.

“The iD Awards has been on my radar for a number of years, so it is an honour and great privilege to be part of the judging panel alongside renowned designers and business people,” says Jones.

“I am really looking forward to seeing the flare and creativity of the finalists, and contributing to the discourse surrounding fashion, design creativity and education in New Zealand.”

Over the years, Jones has taught fashion design, theory and visual culture at a number of Colleges and Universities in the UK and worldwide, before moving to lead the Fashion and Textiles area at the University of East London, UK where she taught for eight years.

Throughout her professional life as a designer manufacturer, international trade fairs and exporting was an important part of her business, and in her academic career she has sustained an interest in the internationalisation of higher education particularly in Fashion and Textiles, and it has been this that has driven her personal research, and external developments in terms of collaborative projects and partnerships.

She has led and contributed to successful collaborative partnership validations in Singapore and Malaysia. Internationalisation and externally facing projects are still her main priority in both her own research and also in the strategic future of fashion education at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Jones began her current role in Singapore in January 2013.

Dr Margo Barton, iD Fashion Week committee member and Otago Polytechnic’s School of Design academic leader and principal lecturer (Fashion), was thrilled to have another high callibre fashion educator join this year’s Awards panel.

“Lucy Jones is a name associated with internationalisation and collaboration. It is an honour to have her involved and I’m sure our Awards finalists will benefit greatly by having the opportunity to hear her opinions of their work.”

Twenty eight finalists, representing eight countries and 15 high profile fashion schools, will vie for top prizes in the prestigious Awards.

Prizes include the iD Dunedin Fashion Inc. First Prize NZ$10,000 (to celebrate the 10th anniversary), Caffe L’Affare second place $4,000, Dunedin International Airport third place $2000 for third place, with other special prizes including The Fabric Store prize worth $3000 (includes $2000 worth of fabric), the New Zealand Light Leathers Prize, worth $2000 (includes $1000 worth of leather) and the Dunedin’s Golden Centre Mall Prize $1000 for the most commercial collection. The MC for the Awards will be longtime supporter of iD Fashion Week, Carol Hirschfeld.

Winners from the 2014 iD International Emerging Designer Awards will show their collections at the iD Dunedin Fashion Show XV – the 15th anniversary of the runway show held at Dunedin’s Railway Station on Friday April 4 and Saturday April 5.